Question about fixing a misaligned print after the press was already running

I was at a client site last Tuesday running a 5000 sheet run of brochures, and noticed the cyan was off by 2mm after the first 200 copies. Do you stop the press and waste time recalibrating, or push through and adjust on the fly like I did? Curious what other designers do in this spot.

2 comments

2 Comments

adams8224d ago

Did you check the paper grain direction before you started the run? Nobody else mentioned it. That 2mm shift sounds like the paper was pulling differently as it fed through. If the grain is wrong it'll stretch and throw registration off. I learned that the hard way years ago. Stop the press, check the grain, re-set the plates if you have to. Sucks to lose time but 4800 bad copies suck more.

josephf1024d ago

Honestly I don't think it was the grain. 2mm shift in just 200 sheets sounds more like a plate or cylinder issue, not paper stretch. Paper grain drift usually shows up slower and more gradual than that.